Rand Paul: It’s Time to Pass Audit the Fed

The Federal Reserve continues to largely dictate the terms of its own transparency

Despite overwhelming support from the American people for action, and a grassroots push that has led to multiple victories in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate has so far failed to follow the lead of our colleagues across the Capitol to Audit the Fed.

So the Federal Reserve continues to largely dictate the terms of its own transparency, the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) hands remain tied from conducting a thorough audit, and you pay the price through devalued savings, higher costs, and devastating economic crashes ushered in by market manipulation.

I plan to give Congress another chance to set things right with my Audit the Fed amendment this week.

Audit the Fed is only a few, short pages of making government work for the American people again.

My legislation authorizes the first-ever full audit of the entire Federal Reserve System in its nearly 105-year history, including its agreements with foreign governments and central banks, discount window and open market operations, member bank reserves, and Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) directives.

Audit the Fed would require the GAO to conduct this complete audit within one year of the bill’s passage and report back to Congress within 90 days of finishing the review.

I ran for Senate to fight Washington’s desire to throw billions of dollars at anything that moves, yet for all the disregard Congress has shown in accumulating a $20 trillion-plus national debt, we can still debate its habits in front of the American people.